driving 7 hours to scotland for a bike race | etape loch ness (104km)

mooching up to Inverness, Scotland to take part in the Etape Loch Ness. I’ve been keen to get involved in more bike events this year and this was my first experience ‘racing’ on closed roads… and it was sensational. 104km effort through the Scottish Highlands.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/39635109

00:00 Intro
00:33 “Racing” an Etape?
02:23 Roadtrip
03:21 Event Hub / Collecting Bib
04:25 Exploring Inverness
05:05 Race Prep
05:44 Course Specs
06:23 The Race
16:56 Race Stats
17:45 Outtro

right Today we are heading up to Scotland for a bicycle race We are racing Loch Nessie Tap up in Invenesse Basically one lap of Loch Ness which is a massive lock 106 km in distance 1,000 m of climbing and it’s on closed roads It’s on closed roads I have been itching all year to have a race on closed roads just to see where I’m at because I’ve been tanning the bike for the last four months and 100k on closed roads just sounds perfect to see where I’m at in terms of my fitness and that So yeah this video is going to be about my experience as someone who’s pretty new to racing heading up to the ATAP to race it cuz I know there’s a lot of people who are similar abilities to me in terms of riding bicycles but find it difficult or intimidating to get into actual racing So this could be pretty interesting to see what this is like cuz I think it’s the perfect sweet spot between like competitive racing that just ain’t for me and like a chill little sporty type of event So see what it’s all about And what’s cool about events like this is there’s going to be 5,000 dons on the start line I think this is actually one of the biggest bike races in Scotland A lot of them people are going to be maybe newer to cycling or they’re just going to be there to complete the lap just ping around just for the experience just to get around and complete it There’s also going to be a lot of people there who are racing Now I know this cuz I had a look at the results from last year There’s a lot of people there from race teams and cycling clubs and that who were there to have a proper dig Hopefully that’s where I’m going to be up at the front racing But I like the idea that newbies can do this event but also people who are cycling veterans who want to race I like the idea that you don’t have to race but you can if you want And if you want to just chill and poodle about you’re allowed to do that as well It’s it’s just a nice balance compared to showing up at a crit race where you have to have a dig You have to kill yourself out there otherwise you ain’t doing it right And off the top of my head the winning time from last year to complete the 106 km was about 2 hours and 45 minutes which average speed was about 38 km for that So there’s some like that’s a serious that’s a serious dig in my mind Not world tour level but it’s a serious dig So I’m interested to see how close to the top I can get Looking at the results I’m hoping for like a top 100 finish That would be class If I can finish in the top 100 I’ll leave Scotland a very happy man But that’s enough waffling anyway Let’s get the car packed and and start this absolute mammoth trek up to Scotland [Music] Just a mini one Yeah Oh about 4 hours into the drive now We are just near Glasgow Having a bit of a stop at uh Hamilton services getting them at Flurry Charging the car a little bit and then we’ve got about another half an hour drive until the Airbnb or the hotel thing that we’re staying at tonight We are then going to get off tomorrow morning and scoot on up to [Music] [Applause] Invenesse If you’re cramping you’re cold you’re tired it’s nasty [Music] So just been to pick up the numbers or the bibs whatever you want to call it for a bike race I don’t actually know what you do call it but we’re at the little event village now Quite a lot of stuff going on Food vendors and that Couple of shops You get your bike fixed up if you need to I am number 1055 I’m in wave A So we are starting tomorrow morning at a heinous time And we are starting at half 5 I think in the morning and we have to be there a bit before that as well So it’s going to be an early ass morning Going to have to shovel some porridge down me at god what about 4:00 Make sure I can go to the toilet and that and then then get out to the start line and there releasing people releasing or setting people off in waves of don’t know how many people but it’s intervals of 3 minutes So our wave will go there’ll be 3 minutes and then other people will go So hopefully there won’t be so much congestion on the road [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat Heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Right made it to the hotel Now we’re all checked in and that got all my race numbers and bibs and that Just a couple bits of admin stuff to do I need to attach the number to the bike Now I don’t know how you’re going to do it If you’re going to sort of stick it on like that or if you wrap it around the seat tube or what Race number is massive So I’ve stuck it on the back of the jersey and I think it’s all [Music] right Just looking at the elevation profile ahead of the race tomorrow So you can see off the back like 106k with 1,000 m of climbing That is I like the sound of that And you can see the actual elevation profile itself looks pretty rolling Well I mean like to be honest it looks pretty flat with a couple of like up and downs in between And then there’s just one big climb at like the 55 km mark which looks to be like a 56k climb with 300 m So that’ll be a pretty decent one I’ll have to save my legs until I get to that point And then from there from about I don’t know 65k onwards looks like net downhill So it should be pretty quick coming in uh back to Invenesse after we’ve done the lap at Loch Ness So sign me up mate I am buzzing Just making our way down to the start line now I uh forgot my helmet as you can tell which is why I’ve got this uh other helmet on that I don’t normally wear So yeah good start [Music] So this is me from the future It is the evening of the race Uh we are now just chilling in the Kang Gorms We’ve come over from Invenesse after we finished today My legs are killing me They are really very sore They haven’t been this sore since the via Crit which is just like an allout 45minut absolute smash fest But yeah I wanted to touch on the event today cuz I I really enjoyed it Honestly it was one of the best days or the most enjoyable days I’ve had on a bike in just yeah maybe ever I think it’s because since the start of this year since I’ve been doubling down on the bike I’m barely running I’ve spent the last 4 months just sweating out the bike I’ve got a little bit stronger since I started doing that like relative to me And I’ve been itching to do some kind of racing or like just proper like you know like feel like I’m in a race but I don’t want to do crits because I just feel like I I’ll still get spat I don’t feel strong enough to do that And in the UK I feel like you’re either doing the national crit circuits where you’re an actual like phenom I do not have the legs for any anything like that at all You or you’re doing cat 4 crit races which I still don’t think you it’s not new cyclists doing Cat 4 crit races for the most part It’s people who’ve been cycling for a long time and want to get into racing So they’re still very strong on the bike and I just feel like I don’t have the legs for that sort of stuff yet but I want to race So this was like the perfect way to sort of dip your toes into proper racing without it being an actual race So for context there’s 6,000 dons doing the attack Loch Ness or the Loch Nessie Tap 6,000 people So bare people of all abilities as well So it isn’t a race but it has the characteristics of a race So it’s 106k 1,000 m of climbing You have a chip There’s a leaderboard The roads were closed and the people at the front were racing Obviously the majority of the people there doing this event are like just doing it for the fun of it Probably a lot of new cyclists there A lot of cyclists who are doing their longest ride It can be what you want it to be though because of the way they set it up And I loved that about it because we were in the first wave So we got off and we were like we were hammering it We were racing off the bat I was going out well too hard I was getting super carried away by things trying to stick onto a group of people that were just uh better than me on the bike in that But but I loved it That that feeling of actually being in a race where it’s obviously somewhat competitive It ain’t like a serious uh serious race but it felt like we were racing and I I love that feeling Yeah we got off at 6:00 in the morning on the nose The way they did it was pretty good I was a little bit concerned about congestion on the roads given that there were 6,000 people there But the way they sort of got around that is basically doing waves of 300 people and then they would do like an interval of three mins then the next wave three mins etc And we were in the first wave so you know like we were off the front anyway Yeah Out the gates we obviously I went too hard I was very carried away I was trying to stick with people who were just miles better than me to begin with putting out too much power that just weren’t sustainable After the adrenaline and that had worn off I then sort of settled back a little bit and we found the group the headwind on the way out So the first 50k where the headwind was horrendous If you weren’t in a group you were dead You like it was awful Even when you were just in a group and you try to go you you’d overtake you just like skew out a little bit into the right where there’s no one in front of you It was like being in a wind tunnel It was nasty So I was trying to stick with groups as much as I could I also found myself doing turns off the front in the first like 30k I was like what am I doing man got into sort of like some mindset that I’m wild van art and that cuz I was feeling good and then I was yeah overexerting myself quite a lot Just want this as proof that I’m sat on the front pulling about 30 riders and I have been doing for 5 minutes You see that [Music] but yeah the first 30k bueno The roads were good the scenery was good my legs were good and yeah the the first 40 km like flew by We’re averaging about 36ks an hour which is a rare sight It’s seldom do I look down at my Garmin and see an average speed of above 30 km an hour So I was thinking at that time I was like “This is going to be the quickest I’ve ever done 100k.” And it did turn out to be that Got to about 40k We were good We were chilling And then I was I was desperate for a piss Oh about 40k in I’ve had to stop for a piss Now I’m on my own I hope a group comes back or pass me It’s going to be going to be long otherwise Jesus Christ And I had to pull over lose my group and then I was fighting for my life trying to catch them back up getting nowhere cuz like I said the headwind and that it was just a Tad Pagati would have struggled to get back on that group I would have thought after uh realizing that I wasn’t going to catch him I was out of sight at that point Sort of sat up a little bit slowed down and just waited well sort of prayed for another group to come from behind and thankfully they did Thankfully a group of like 15 pretty strong riders came scooped me up collected me and then we eventually uh got back on to the original group and then we’re in one massive pelaton which was interesting There’s a lot of riders in that taking up all the road and that it actually felt like I was in the tour to France It was it was mad Then the weather took a bit of a turn for the worst It was like gloomy and cloudy all day for the most part but it then started to rain which made it quite interesting cuz the roads were wet Spray was just tanning me in the face It was an interesting experience for me Obviously you see brakes are squealing and that makes you a little bit nervous And at the 50 km mark is when the big pelaton like we arrived at the big climb of the day [Applause] Right 35 miles in maybe like 55k Making our way up the big climb of the day Feeling good so far Uh legs are better than I thought they’d be And we got a tailwind on the way back So going to take it easyish up here and then save the legs for the the finish [Music] I think the specs on it was like 5k It’s a weird one It was it was a climb that the gradient was wasn’t accurate like because it was so steep in parts and then like flattened down and then super steep again and that blew the the group to pieces to be honest uh proper fractured everything And I was trying to trying to ride pretty hard up it but I was just losing places to all the little 60 kg people who are obviously much better at climbing than me But when we got to the top of the climb I was doing all right to be honest And then I had to kill myself to try and find another couple of people And we latched on at the 60k mark to a really good group I was really pleased to to find this group of people There’s like five or six of us And at that point we had started doing like an actual chain gang We started doing turns like rolling turns One of us goes to the front does a bit of a dig scoops off to the right someone takes off I go to the back Doing that for the last 40 km which is why I think we managed an average speed that was like crazy beyond what I would normally be able to do especially wouldn’t be able to do that stuff by myself And yeah the by the time we’d got to like the 70k mark I was feeling good still like I I knew I’d put down more power than I normally had but I was so fresh What was good about it was this group were very similar ability to me I mean to be fair at times I I felt like I was stronger off the front people were dropping back and stuff like that We had to slow up a little bit and I felt like I had better legs which is a very rare feeling Again normally used to riding with people are just miles better So it was a good feeling to feel better than other people on the bike Yeah from like the 802 don’t know 80k mark to the finish pretty much we were just drilling it drilling it we had a headwind uh tailwind sorry and it was pretty rolling mainly downhill it was rapid it felt really quick and then we got back into invenesse by that point our like group of six had split off there was three of us then another three had dropped off so we made it to Invenesse with three of [Music] Heat [Music] Heat Heat Heat [Music] [Music] just so good I just I enjoyed it so much man Honestly I think that feeling of being in a race without it having to be a race or just being in a race with people who are of a similar ability to you I just felt like it was it was mint So a lot messy tap We just got round Specs on it 104 km with,200 m of climbing Uh we did it in 3 hours and 2 minutes and 50 seconds So a little over what I wanted but averaged 34.3K an hour So it’s my quickest ride I think it’s the PR for the 40k the 50k and the 100k as well So pretty sound actually It was a dead nice route as well It was biblical at about 40k though It started hammering it down Uh so I’m piss wet through still but that was class That was like the first proper felt like a bit of a race as well It was good that good experience Now what we doing for the rest of the day um going to eat Yeah Go and get a brew or something from a from a cafe and then we’re driving over to Sky [Music] I got the bike in [Music]